Arts'n crafts ideas (Full version)

Customizing a broom for your big Spring clean!


customized broom 
If you'd like to enjoy making a clean sweep of things during your next big Spring clean, why not customize your broom! With these cheerful colors, you won't be able to stop sweeping... Here, we're going to decorate a wooden broom, which is much more environmentally friendly than the plastic version. Customized broom

you will need

Materials for customizing a broom
  • a wooden broom: a second-hand broom will do nicely (you'll have to clean the brush head, in this case),
  • you'll also need D'clic Mosaic tiles are easy to work with because they're pre-cut. They come in Saffron, orange, brick-red and antarctic blue shades
  • glue, joint compound powder (it's best to use D'clic Mosaic's own joint compound powder, using another type may not deliver the best results)
  • red, yellow and blue acrylic paint

Setting the mosaic tiles in place

Covering the broom with the mosaic tilesD'clic Mosaic comes in pre-cut tiles in all sorts of different shapes. This means there's virtually no cutting to be done. Only the 2 isoceles triangles on the right and the left had to be cut out, using the scissor blades and the ruler as a guide. As these tiles don't shatter, it's easy to make the mosaic on the lounge table... In order to place the tiles in a regular pattern, you must draw 2 cm vertical bands in pencil, starting from the center of the brush and going outwards: this will give you a perfectly symetrical design. Next, position the tiles on the right-hand side: turn them around, move them about, and when you have a design you like, start to glue them on. Do the same thing on the left-hand side. Keep on like this gradually towards the center. There will be just 5 blue mosaic tiles, there to match the color of the brush hairs: however, the contrasting colors work pretty well, especially on the handle. Once the glue has dried, you may apply the joint compound. You obtain the joint compound by mixing the powder with water. You just have to fill in the gaps between the tiles with this compound, then wipe them clean before they dry, using a damp sponge so as to remove any excess joint compound from the tiles. As soon as the compound is completely dry, you should polish the tiles with a soft cloth to give them a nice glossy look.

painting

Painting the broom handle
Experiment with the different paint and try to reproduce the colors in the mosaic. First of all, you should paint the sides of the bottom part of the brush, then the handle, with wide, wavy strips. Don't paint in level, horizontal lines, but create diagonal lines instead, given that the tiles are in triangular patterns... If you use good quality acrylic paint which has good coverage properties (Jo sonja for example), a single coat will do.


All that's left to do is to put the handle onto the brush head. As soon as the paint has dried...you can get to work!Brush and colored brush handle